Shoshana Lew is a nonresident fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, with expertise in transportation and infrastructure. She is also chief operating officer of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. She previously was chief financial officer and assistant secretary for budget and programs at the US Department of Transportation (USDOT). She was also vice chair of USDOT’s Council on Credit and Finance and helped establish the Build America Bureau to advance infrastructure projects, streamline credit programs, and increase public and private investment in infrastructure.

At USDOT, Lew also managed departmental efforts to accelerate permitting and delivery of infrastructure projects; development and implementation of fuel economy standards for cars and trucks; and departmental coordination on other key regulatory matters, including asset management for highway and transit programs.

Lew previously was a deputy assistant secretary at USDOT. She served in Obama administration as a senior adviser at the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and as a policy adviser at the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she focused on energy policy, and at the Office of Management and Budget, where her portfolio focused on implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Before serving in the Obama administration, Lew was a policy analyst at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. She received her AB in history from Harvard University and her MA in American history from Northwestern University.